4 NOVEMBER 2017 Consulting®
Shor tTakes Trends, Views and Analysis
A Little Insurance
Capgemini’s Seth Rachlin on how the industry is changing and what it
means for consultants.
Consulting: What have been some of the big recent
changes you’ve seen in the insurance industry?
Rachlin: I work with the full set of our property and
casualty clients across the broad range of services we
provide. What we’re seeing and what we continue
to see accelerating is a real desire to really re-define
how insurance is actually sold and delivered based
on the capabilities of various digital technology. It’s
no secret the insurance industry has been behind a
number of other sectors, including its sister sector
banking and financial services, in terms of the kinds
of capabilities customers are offered in what I’d call
a “seamless digital interaction.”
Consulting: What components make up that seamless
digital interaction?
Rachlin: It’s really three things. First is a desire to
enhance and, in some cases, create new insurance
products that benefit from things like connected
technologies and other ways of really changing the
nature of risks that are actually insured. Second, I
think we’re seeing a desire to substantially change the
customer experience, to make it more seamless, faster
and more customer-focused in the broadest sense of
the word. Third is the ability of these technologies to
take cost out of the system. My focus is property and
casualty; it’s an unbelievable statistic that for every
dollar of premium insurance companies take in, 30-
35 cents of that is administrative costs in one form
or another. We often don’t think about what these
ratios mean or what they’re actually saying. That’s
an equation that when people look at it, that’s where
people see the opportunity. There’s a real ability to
change the cost structure of the industry based on
some of the technology capabilities that are out there.
Consulting: How will industry changes be felt on
customer side?
Rachlin: From a customer perspective, whether it’s
product changes based on things like connected
homes, connected cars, just-in-time insurance
enabled by mobile devices, all those kinds of things. I
do think the product change is still less dramatic than
some of the servicing changes, like the notion that for
a minor car accident you get out of your car, take a
bunch of pictures or now maybe you do a 360-degree
video which is mobile phone enabled. Then you get
a repair center to get an estimate and actual payment
all in near-real-time. That’s a different customer
experience that Insuretech enables. I think it’s both
a product and an experience change you’re going to
see from a customer perspective.
Consulting: What forces have given rise to this
digital insurance revolution?
Rachlin: There’s always two pieces to the equation. The
actual availability of relevant technologies, because
without the capabilities nothing happens. That being
said I think it’s two things, number one, changing
demographics of the customer base and the emerging
customer base. The notion that the next generation
Seth Rachlin
“Digital disruption” is a term we hear so often these days that it’s almost lost all meaning.
The insurance industry isn’t known as an early adopter for new technologies, and is
undergoing some major technological changes not seen since the advent of the internet.
Shifting customer demographics, downward cost pressure and new technologies all are
forcing insurers to look for cost savings to boost profitability while at the same time
providing a new generation of customers with the kinds of services they demand. Consulting
sat down with Seth Rachlin, ExecutiveVP, P&C Insurance Lead at Capgemini to talk about
how the industry is changing and what it means for consultants.
